Surprise! Windows tablet market share jumps to 7.5%

Surprise! Windows tablet market share jumps to 7.5%

Windows tablets aren't dead -- they
hit a surprisingly high 7.5% market share in the first quarter of 2013. A 7.5% market share might not seem like much, but consider the woes that Windows tablets have been living through, that's encouraging news for Microsoft. It may mean that despite all the bad news, bad press, and bad planning, there's a real future for the devices.

What's even more is that's not even worldwide, for I believe it's only been sold in North America and being released elsewhere.

Microsoft's Surface Pro will mark its first venture outside the cozy confines of the Americas by heading to China on April 2nd, according to its Weibo site. That could also mean that lovers of the convertible tablet in Australia, parts of Europe and elsewhere might also be able to grab one soon -- as Redmond indicated earlier that it would roll out in those countries around the same time. There's no word yet on pricing or where to get one, but Microsoft recently launched its flagship Chinese store on Tmall, so that would be a good place for shoppers there to start -- assuming they're interested.

Windows tablets aren't dead -- they
hit a surprisingly high 7.5% market share in the first quarter of 2013. A 7.5% market share might not seem like much, but consider the woes that Windows tablets have been living through, that's encouraging news for Microsoft. It may mean that despite all the bad news, bad press, and bad planning, there's a real future for the devices.

Well, I don't see why windows tablet should die. People are complaining about Windows 8 on desktops and not on tablets. Win 8 UI is designed for tablets so I'm sure these tablets will do well on the market. Talk about Win 8 PC.... that's a different story.

Take a look at the Surface Pro, that tablet hybrid is brilliant. Rock solid, good quality build and surprisingly good for a tablet. But a wee bit expensive... Though I don't even know what to say about the RT version...

Well, I don't see why windows tablet should die. People are complaining about Windows 8 on desktops and not on tablets. Win 8 UI is designed for tablets so I'm sure these tablets will do well on the market. Talk about Win 8 PC.... that's a different story.

Exactly. It is made for tablets.

MS have spent perhaps 2bn , caused problems with the oems, and alienated a substantial portion of their existing users.

Result - sales of 3m tablets.

Pretty expensive way of doing it.

The danger for MS is driving the decline of their dominant position in pc and ending up fighting for 3rd spot in tablets.

They have enormous finanaces they can throw at it - and are guaranteed vast presence on the shelves.

A couple of friends of mine, developers, and I are convinced that windows 8 will come out the winner eventually. I've used macOS, iOS, android, custom built android, and windows 8 across over a dozen devices. Windows 8 is light years ahead in stability, speed, and feel. There's just no comparison. None at all. No way iOS or android could possibly beat windows 8.

A lot of people don't know windows 8 right now because they don't know any better. Just use it side by side with any other OS and see what I mean.

A couple of friends of mine, developers, and I are convinced that windows 8 will come out the winner eventually. I've used macOS, iOS, android, custom built android, and windows 8 across over a dozen devices. Windows 8 is light years ahead in stability, speed, and feel. There's just no comparison. None at all. No way iOS or android could possibly beat windows 8.

A lot of people don't know windows 8 right now because they don't know any better. Just use it side by side with any other OS and see what I mean.

Win 8 will NEVER make it in the tablet competition. Before it even gets closer to being a winner, it will not be called Win 8 by then. Maybe you meant, one day, Microsoft will come up with a Windows OS that will eventually replace android & iOS. I agree. But Win 8 is NOT it.

Yep, windows is best for everything, and considering how good windows 7/8 performs on simple notebook hardware vs linux/mac, tablets with windows 8 should be perfect and should just dominate that market just like computers market, but there is a few reasons why its happening very slow :
1) big part of tablet users are not that much tablet users, as they are apple/linux fanboys,
2) microsoft might have made a few mistakes in tablets/windows8,
3) microsoft got into this market way too late.

Price is really nothing, just look at how big prices are of apple products, and how big its part in market is. I havent tried any of windows tablets myself, because i think that tablets are in general useless, but anyway, microsoft has all tools to make a great tablet and dominate the world, but unless they will really want to do it, we will not see that to happen.

As if you still know what nokia is, nokia a few years(maybe little bit more than few) ago was number 1 mobile phones manufacturer in the world, and no one really cared, that symbian was the slowest, the buggiest, and the worst os for the mobile phones in the world.
So, now, tablets hardware is pretty good as for tablets, and microsoft has the best os in the world, so all they need to make perfect tablet is a little bit of willingness, good boss and a crowd of people, who are not anti-microsoft activists. As for now, there is a big lack of one or two things out of three i mentioned.

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